


Temperance and Vengeance

by RDS_rambles



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Ending Fix, F/F, Suspense, Temperance Ending (Cyberunk 2077)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RDS_rambles/pseuds/RDS_rambles
Summary: Johnny has been given control of V's body and he's looking to return the favour (sort of.)
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/Female V
Comments: 9
Kudos: 78
Collections: Lizzie's Bar





	1. Return

**Author's Note:**

> I hated how Johnny completely ghosted everyone in the Temperance ending, so this fic is an attempt to remedy that.
> 
> This first chapter is a stage-setter, a teaser if you will. Throughout this story, the perspective will shift between Judy and Johnny.

Nothing. That is how much Judy Alvarez has heard from V in the past week. Now this wouldn’t be too weird, considering how her girlfriend had a habit of getting tangled up in the weirdest of scenarios. However, this time _feels_ different. The last time Judy heard anything from her, V was on the brink of death. She had to make a choice; side with Arasaka, the very corporation that put her in this shit situation or attack their Night City headquarters in an effort to save herself.

V called her that night, getting ready to “face death”, as she put it. But since that call, she was radio silent. No cute texts, no late-night buzzing of her holo, nothing. Judy’s mind wandered over memories of her and V together, from the fateful diving trip to the last night before she departed to assault Arasaka Tower.

She was lost in her train of thought once more when a familiar engine roar reverberated outside her apartment. Judy rushed to the window to see V’s Porsche parked almost directly below it. _Did V finally return?,_ she silently asked herself. Barely a second later, the door of her apartment slid open and she walked in rather brusquely. V walked straight to the couch, sat down and summoned her to do the same.

“We need to talk.” V’s voice sounded a bit… off? As if someone else’s twang got mixed up with hers. Judy felt all her anxiety change into anger.

“V, _what the fuck!_ You’ve been gone for a week without as much as a peep and the first thing you say is, and I quote, “we need to talk?” What the fuck is wrong with you?” To her surprise, she was… crying?

“I don’t know how to explain this to you, Judy. Especially because I know how much you meant to V… and how much she means to you.” Even with her voice sounding as weird as it did, it was clear as day that saying those words hurt her. 

“But I’m not V.” She started to feel confused, but then she remembered in a flash who was inside V’s head over the last few months.

“Johnny? How the fuck are you here and is V… well, wherever the fuck it was you were before landing inside her head?”

“V decided to call in a favour from the Aldecaldos to storm Arasaka Tower. The goal was to get inside Mikoshi, the location where Arasaka kept the piece of tech that could separate V and me. The entity that performed the split told V that she would only have six months left to live. The chip in V’s head had essentially made her body mine. She would’ve been a stranger in her own flesh.” Johnny let out a sigh.

“Long story short, we had a chat. V agreed to give me her body. Said she didn’t want to have you witness her dying slowly, despite everything.”

“And her gonk ass thought that ghosting me forever and having her body inhabited by a long-dead terrorist was a better idea?” Judy could feel her anger flare up again.

“There’s one more thing. Don’t write V off just yet.”

“How? She’s stuck in cyberspace, from what you’ve told me.”

“I have the beginnings of a plan to get V back to you. Some details still need to be worked out, but I will need your help to pull it off. Yes, I know, I’m not what you’d call _trustworthy,_ but I promised V to be truthful. Especially to you.”

If Johnny wasn’t bullshitting her, she could be reunited with V. Judy felt a small spark of hope take hold in her chest.

"I have to go now, meet some more people to get the ball rolling. I'll keep you in the loop." Johnny left her apartment about as fast as he entered.

 _V, I'm coming for you, you gonk,_ she thought _,_ a fire freshly lit in her chest.


	2. Marbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first steps of Johnny's plan are set in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewritten and re-uploaded this because frankly, my initial version turned out to be a mess.
> 
> Thanks to Greendot for giving me areas of improvement and ZeroFahrenheit for beta reading.

It didn’t take long for Johnny to drive to the Afterlife from Judy’s apartment. The morning rush hour had died down already and while there still was plenty of traffic, it wasn’t so much that the streets would get congested.

He drove into the alley housing the bar’s main entrance, parked the Porsche in the last free space available and got out. He walked into the dive and sat down near the bartender.

“Two Johnny Silverhands, please,” he said while making himself comfortable on one of the stools. The bartender poured the drinks with grace, mixing the Tequila Old Fashioned and beer with practiced movements.

“You waiting for someone?” the bartender asked, his inquisitive eyes boring into Johnny’s.

“Looking for Rogue. Got biz to discuss,” he said rather curtly. Johnny really wasn’t in the mood for chit-chatting. He knocked down one of the Silverhands and waited.

Rogue arrived about ten minutes after Johnny did. She didn’t stop, instead immediately making her way to her usual booth in the back of the bar. Johnny stood up and walked over to the merc standing guard outside of Rogue’s section.

“Here to talk to Rogue, so get the fuck out of my way.”

“Let him through, Weyland.” Rogue’s order sounded smooth, with a practiced familiarity.

“I would lie if I said it was good to see you, Johnny. Guess you’re the sole occupant of this body now?”

“Yes. That’s also the main reason why I’m here.” Rogue’s eyebrows shot up.

“You have my attention.”

“I’m not going to bore you with the deets on the Arasaka Tower attack, since you probably know them already. But in short, V gave me her body since she would’ve only had six months left in it. Now I want to get her out of cyberspace, into a body that won’t reject her. Preferably a body she’s used to.”

“What gives you the idea that it’s even remotely possible?”

“For starters, the Relic prototype that got stuck in V’s head isn’t the only one in existence. Arasaka made four of these fucking things. If we can get our hands on one of the others, we can write V’s engram onto the chip and slot it into her new body. Problem is, their locations are going to be a bitch to reach. One of them is in their lunar base, the second one is in a Crystal Palace vault and the third is in their Tokyo headquarters.”

“Breaking into any of these locations sounds like suicide. Besides, where would you even get V a new body?” By now, Rogue only listened to Johnny out of curiosity.

“The easy solution would be to kill some poor gonk and slot V’s engram into it. However, I feel like I owe her a body she knows. Which means growing one from her genetic material, preferably dating from before I wormed my way into her head. I think her ripperdoc still has some of her stem cells on ice.” He paused, weighing the choice of words ahead before speaking again.

“Gonna be hard to convince a biotech corp to grow her new body from it, though. Hate to say it, but our best shot might be doing some dirty work for one. Best not to do that in NC, though. Corpos here are on edge after the hit on Arasaka.” Johnny drank his other cocktail in one gulp to close the sentence.

“Seems like you’ve at least made an effort to think this plan through. Fine, I’ll help. There will be one  _ massive _ fucking IOU for you after this.” The emphasis on massive didn’t come as a surprise to Johnny.

“Counting on that, Rogue.”

“I’ll ring you when I’ve got deets we can work with.”

“Knowing you, that shouldn’t take too long,” Johnny remarked with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice. Not a word of that was a lie; Rogue’s connections reached almost everywhere.

“Fuck off, Johnny.”

He decided that pissing Rogue off further would not be a good idea and left for the exit.

\---

Judy was mulling over her earlier conversation with Johnny, mainly about why the rockstar-turned-terrorist was in V’s body. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Johnny was manipulating her. He did know how close exactly she was with the merc due to him being, quite literally, inside of her head. 

Many questions swirled through her brain the lack of apparent answers making it all even more confusing. Judy got rudely shaken out of her thoughts by the chiming of her phone. She picked it up and opened her inbox. She found that there were three unread messages, all of them sent by an unknown contact.  _ Unknown contact, that’s weird, _ she thought. She opened the messages.

[???: Sometimes, the road unknown is the best road to follow]

[???: The time has come to place your trust]

[???: We’re waiting]

“What the fuck does that even mean?” she shouted across the room. Her rage flowing out of her, she sat down again to think it over.  _ Who sent those messages and what are they trying to tell me? _ Her eyes lingered over the second message. 

“The time has come to place your trust”.  _ Could that be linked to Johnny?,  _ she wondered. The timing of the messages felt too accurate to be mere coincidence to her. As if someone heard her think, the music on the radio changed; it shifted from the usual electropunk into a softer melody that sounded vaguely familiar. A memory of her sitting on the hood of a wrecked car, humming a tune by herself came up in her. She remembered the emotions she felt on that day; nervousness, sadness and worry all briefly flowing through her. Those were drowned out shortly after by a wave of affection and in that moment, the realization of how those notes were familiar struck her like lightning.

This was the tune she hummed to V during the diving trip that ended up marking the first day of their romantic relationship.

The conjunction of her swirling thoughts and the memory of better times felt like a subliminal message.  _ Maybe these texts are meant as a confirmation _ , she mused. Still didn’t explain why they were so cold. V’s texts to her were quite warm and full of feeling, especially since they became a couple. Another memory drifted into her mind’s eye, this time of V telling her what she was planning to do to solve her acute Relic problem.

“Once I’m inside Mikoshi, an AI named Alt will split me off from Johnny. Then she’ll put my engram back into my body. After that, all I’ve planned is coming back to you.” Judy recalled V’s words with such a clarity that it felt like she was saying it while sitting right next to her.

It could all be an elaborate lie, one of the many that this fucking city threw at people. However, Johnny did sound sincere when he told Judy about V’s choice and his frankly batshit plan. And if said batshit plan meant that there was a chance that she could be reunited with her girlfriend, she would see it through.

\---

Johnny stepped back into the sweltering Night City heat, cigarette already on the way to his mouth. Rogue reacted as well as he could have hoped for. Now all that was left to do was to check on one other thing and wait. While Rogue may be a fixer with a great number of connections, what Johnny asked would certainly be a tall order for her.

He smoked his cigarette while thinking about how he’d break the news of V handing over control of her body to her ripperdoc. Viktor was quite fond of her, even managed to save her life shortly after Johnny started worming his way into her brain. He was not likely to take Johnny occupying V’s body well, even though that was a choice V made herself. 

Johnny finished his smoke and was about to get back in the car when he abruptly remembered he’d keep Judy informed of what was going on. He rapidly grabbed his phone and called her.

“Johnny here.”

“What are you calling for?” She sounded irritated.

“Promised you I’d keep you in the loop earlier this morning, remember?”

“You did. Didn’t expect you to follow up on it.”

“Ha fucking ha.” Johnny barely made an effort to hide the sarcasm in his voice. He quickly recomposed himself, though.

“Anyway, talked to Rogue. She isn’t fully on board yet, said my plan had more holes than a rusted boat. However, that route isn’t fully closed yet. She might be well at work to fix it up. It’s what she does best.”

“Doesn’t sound too reassuring.”

“Nope. Come to think of it, might be a good idea to get back to work on that bot perched on your desk. Could be useful for infiltration.”

“Gives me something to do at least.” Judy sighed.

“Got to go now, have to check something at V’s old ripper. I’ll let you know more when I can.” Johnny hung up. He threw the butt of his cigarette on the ground, entered his car and drove off, deeper into Little China.

\---

Johnny walked through the esoterica shop, which was unusually quiet at this time of day. Whenever V would pass through, the store’s proprietress Misty would be there. She would stop for a chat and sometimes ask for a tarot reading. He briefly stopped to look around. Seeing her nowhere around, he came to the conclusion that Misty probably went to the rooftop above to think.

He moved into the alley behind it, stopping for a moment to pet the cat. Afterwards, he walked down the stairs into Viktor’s clinic.

“Who is it now, Johnny or V?” he asks while looking at Johnny with curiosity.

“Johnny, I’m afraid. V stayed behind.” A hint of sadness laced his voice. Vik, on the other hand, had a look on his face that would’ve obliterated Johnny on the spot if it could kill. His hands were balled into fists and if that was possible, actual steam would’ve spouted from his ears.

“Meaning to say that you stabbed V in the back and stole her body? You took away her last fucking choice!” Viktor looked about ready to punch Johnny.

“I know what I’ll say will sound like bullshit, but I did not. This  _ was  _ V’s choice. Even with her mind disentangled from mine, she would only have had a life expectancy of about six months. The damage to her brain was already done. She would’ve been an intruder in her own skin.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re back.”

“Inside Mikoshi, V and I talked about her prognosis with the AI that split us. She used to be a brilliant netrunner in life, wrote the source of this fucking mess.” Johnny paused.

“Mean to say that AI is  _ Alt Cunningham _ ?” Viktor sounded shocked at the revelation that an old legend of Night City is roaming the net as a near-omnipotent AI.

“V asked her to do some digging in the Arasaka net. Specifically, she wanted to know if the Relic prototype inside her head was the only one ever made. Turns out, Arasaka made three more of those fucking chips. She had her plan ready almost immediately when she heard that.”

“And that plan is?”

“Send me back into her body to steal one of the others, download her engram onto it and slot it into her new body. 

“What exactly here is going to convince me that you genuinely mean this?” The ripperdoc’s tone was biting. He still did not believe Johnny.

“V has given me a second chance in life. I fucked everything up I ever touched in my first one. This is a chance to start making amends for all the bad shit I’ve done.” Johnny took a deep breath before speaking again. “Besides that, she’s rubbed off on me more than I’d like to admit.”

“Johnny Silverhand admitting he fucked up. Seems like wonders still exist.” Viktor laughed a curt laugh before his expression shifted back into a serious one. “Say I believe you for a minute. What did you even come here for, anyway?”

“You still got genetic material of V laying around, preferably stem cells? Best if they’re from before the heist.”

“Let me guess, that’s got everything to do with the new body you want to get for V?”

“It does. I owe her a body she knows, seeing as how I’m in hers now. Using her genetic material to grow one is the only way to achieve that.”

“That could work, with the right equipment. Getting access to that will be a hell of a challenge, though,” Viktor said in a matter-of-fact tone. 

“I’m working on that. Can you answer the fuckin’ question?”

“Yes, I do have the material you’re asking for. No, you can’t take it.”

“Didn’t even think of asking that. Better if you hold on to it anyway.”

“Now get out, I got a patient here in ten minutes.” He moved his hand towards Johnny as if he tried to swat a particularly large fly.

Johnny walked back up the stairs and out in the street again, towards his old faithful Porsche. Before driving off again, he sent Judy an update.

[Johnny: talked to Viktor]

[he has what we need for V]

Judy quickly replied.

[Judy: that’s good news]

[anything else?]

[Johnny: no, got to wait for Rogue to do her thing now]

[Judy: ok, I better get to tinkerin’ with the bot]

Judy sat down at her desk in the living room, half-stripped bot perched precariously on top of it. She was thinking over what possible upgrades she could install. Of course, having an active camo system would be a no-brainer. The thought of it caused a rather painful memory of V telling her about the heist’s events to well up. 

V told her how she used an experimental bot with a camo system to allow her to break into the Konpeki Plaza systems.  _ That fucking heist. _ Both of them had suffered painful losses due to it, not in the least bit their respective best friends. That same heist was also responsible for the shit sandwich she found herself in now. She felt a brief sting of pain as Evelyn's face drifted into her mind's eye.  


She stopped to find her bearings again. When Judy felt herself calm down, she shifted her attention back to the bot. She looked at the system link currently lying outside of the bot and made a mental note to swap it out for an upgraded version as soon as she got her hands on one. Her analysis now complete, Judy dove into the work she had ahead of her. It was going to take some serious effort to rebuild the bot, yet she felt it would all be worth it if it meant that she could save her girlfriend.


	3. update

I know, it's been quite a while since the last chapter. Real life has been keeping me occupied quite a lot and I got myself kinda stuck in the plot line I had planned so far, so I got to disentangle myself first. It may be a while before the next chapter will be online, but rest assured: I haven't forgotten about this story. I'll do what I can to make it a hell of a ride for both the people in the story as for you, the reader.


End file.
